“What are youtalkingabout?” I growled. Barrett’s jaw ground.
“Oh, nothing. Nothing.” Titus picked at a loose thread on his sleeve. “Truthfully, your half-brother and I were having a peaceful visit before you spoiled the fun.” He looked over his shoulder at the Engrossians. “His partner is lovely, by the way.”
I didn’t know if he meant Dax or Celissia, and I thought that was the chancellor’s intention. To show us he was on to their plan. After so many years of secrets and tricks, Titus had learned to spot them in his opponents. We’d been out-manipulated.
Was he any better than Queen Ritalia, wielding other’s lies against them?
Behind Titus, Celissia caught my eye. She inclined her head slightly to the side, toward Titus, but I didn’t understand what she meant.
“Yes,” Mila said, “Celissia is beautiful and kind. Together, they will demonstrate a harmonious rule for the Engrossian clan. But I suggest you release them so that may happen.”
Titus pinched the bridge of his nose as if exhausted by these games. “We have more important things to take care of right now.”
And when the chancellor stepped aside, I saw what Celissia had been gesturing toward.
The world tilted, and my heart rate sped. I clenched my hands, forcing myself to focus through the panic. Vale was sprawled on the floor, her light brown waves fanned out like a starburst around her head. Pale blue dress so out of place against the harsh marble floors, and her eyes closed.
“What did you do to her?” I demanded.
“She’s fine,” Titus said, but Harlen lunged at his master, the move sloppy and weak, one of his ankles seeming gravely injured. The chancellor looked toward his apprentice with disdain. “She is only reading, Harlen.”
“She shouldn’t be unconscious from a reading!” he said through gritted teeth, his cut lip splitting open.
Titus looked adoringly down at Vale. “Sometimes the most powerful sessions take their toll.”
“That’s not how it?—”
“Silence, Harlen!” The chancellor’s command bounced off the crystal and stone chamber. “Vale will wake soon. Pay her no heed. We only had to bring you all to this seeing chamber because your timing was so poor.”
My jaw ground as I watched Vale strewn on the floor, willing her to move. The steady rise and fall of her chest promisedlife, but all I could hear was how Cypherion would scream if something happened to her.
For them, I gave up the game. “Congratulations. You know why we’re here, Titus. What do you want?”
“I want my apprentice to stay here. I want her to remain at my side, conduct readings for me, and to do so happily. I want the girl who looked at me as if I hung the moon for rescuing her to return and do my bidding. But ever since that imbecile left, she has been…difficult.” He sneered over the word. My blood heated at his insinuation of Cypherion.
“Let her go. Let her be her own person.”
“I cannot do that,” Titus said. “I lose her—I lose everything. It was hard enough the months she was gone.”
“Why didn’t you help her, then?” When Ophelia sequestered Vale as a prisoner, Titus did nothing.
“I always intended to get her back. At first, I truly thought the way to fix her readings might be in your mountains, and she was of the most use to me with her magic full. Until I realized the potential of this chamber.” He waved a hand at the pristine pearlescent walls. I didn’t understand what he meant, but he went on, “I’ve relied on a less than satisfactory replacement in her absence. Ineed her.”
Needed her to be the mask to his sham. Needed her as a wealth of magic and fate. But…Titus didn’t needed Vale. No, he only neededpower. Thrived off it.
Cypherion neededher.
And Vale needed…I didn’t know what she needed. Especially not with that tattoo warping her decisions. But she deserved the choice.
I looked Titus dead in the eye. “What will it take?”
“You two,” Titus said, looking between Mila and me, “broke into my home tonight. That alone is worthy of a punishment, regardless of your intentions with my apprentice.”
The way his lips curled over the word punishment sent my stomach churning and palms sweating.
“And they”—the chancellor smoothly inclined his head toward the Engrossians—“entered my manor without honor, intending to fool me. That calls for reprimands, as well. I could allow you all to leave, make you swear you will not repeat your attempts to steal my apprentice, but I doubt that will be enough to placate some of your friends.”
As if to accent his words, a sharp crack echoed through the chamber.
